Home / Hotline Reports / Bulldog Hotline - Nov. 17, 2008
Bulldog Hotline - Nov. 17, 2008
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
Scott Howard is hosting tonight from Purdue (West Lafayette, Ind.), where he’ll be calling the UGA-Loyola, lll. game in the preseason NIT. Notes – the win at Auburn was the 30th in 34 games in opponents’ home stadiums under Richt. AJ Green was named SEC frosh of the week.
Meanwhile, Richt is at a speaking engagement in Macon and is not on yet, as of 8:10PM. Scott notes the tailgate show is once again “Breakfast with the Bulldogs” for the Tech game. Seems we’ve played lots of those early games.
Scott went ahead and started with calls to fill time – Tim in Bonaire wanted to congratulate Richt on 9 wins, hopefully 10, and hope the fans understand all the injuries we’ve had to go through. Tim also wondered how Munson was doing. (Also. Hi Noah, from the radio network) Munson is doing OK, basically enjoying retirement as far as Scott knows. He was doing well the last time Scott got to talk to him though missing doing the UGA games. It’s an adjustment when you’ve done it for so long.
David in Grayson thought it was quite an exciting game. Can Scott help out with some of the calls? How can the coaches keep the guys calm with some calls, such as Irvin having a guy’s hands in his face and another guy getting punched. Special teams are getting better and defense improved. With that, College Gameday recognized AJ for the winning TD catch.
After commercial.. 8:19PM, they found CMR after his speech in Macon.
Jeremy in Memphis had a couple of recruiting-related questions. We have lots of WRs who are seniors. Auburn put 8 in the box and dared us to throw it. We need to make defenses be more honest. Florida has had guys in their games all over the place coming up with big plays. Also, lack of pass rush this year means we need more impact DL. Richt – we’re going hard after some very fine WRs and have some outstanding guys in the house already. Sometimes people forgot who you already have. T. Wilson, Michael Moore, Tavares King would be making more plays this year if he hadn’t gotten hurt. DL – this is the first year we haven’t had a first team all-SEC DE. Last year we led the league in sacks. This year it just hasn’t happened. We’ve kind of gotten spoiled.
I got the chance to wish good luck to the hoopsters to Scott, and asked Richt about building leadership (in general). Lots of different ways to build leaders – each coach has his position (segment) they’re looking to cultivate leader… especially in the offseason when it has to be more player driven. Also, the character education. Then more with our juniors and seniors. Then doing it themselves in the summer when we (coaches) can’t be there .. guys like Greene, Stafford and DJ over the years. Velasco working with linemen, this year Owens and Irvin did a lot working with guys on the defense.
Even something as simple as the seating chart for team meeting we put the seniors in the front and want them to lead at the moment of truth.
Richt is in the airport in Macon waiting to fly back to Athens after the show…
Bryan in Waycross is glad for the win. A couple of questions from around the firehouse – with AJ and MoMass, what about 3rd down conversions missed by running the ball? Also, they’ve heard Bowden might be retiring. Lots of time on 3rd down, we will have a run/pass option. If we see some kind of combo or cover 2/man under coverage, they’re focusing on the pass and we might call in a run. If you blind call a pass you might be throwing into double coverage. A lot also depends on down & distance. We’ll try to do the things that give us the best chance. For instance, on 3rd and 8 or 9, they may be looking for the pass and might be vulnerable to the run or a screen. As for the Bowden rumors, Georgia is CMR’s home and he wants it to be the only job he has.
Joe in Athens (had his radio on)….
Taylor in Athens thinks we’ve had lots of injuries and we’ve played as well as possible. He says he’s a UGA student and said he saw lots of players out in downtown last Thursday night. Richt doesn’t want to get into details or hearsay and invited the caller to call his office to discuss in private.
Ed. note - some suspicion this call was a “poser”
Fred in Calhoun asked about the guys who’ve had knee injuries. CMR – Banks has a chance to be back for the Tech game. Sturdivant has his range of motion back and is already doing squats in the weight room. Vance is coming along since his surgery was much later and Owens is making good progress as well.
Richt senses lots of questions pointing towards the future, and says the future is the Tech game coming up.
Tommy from Norcross said this is our second opportunity to tie Tech’s record from way back, of 8 straight wins in the series. It would be great to tie the record then have a chance to break the record next year. CMR – when you play someone as often as we play GT there are lots of streaks and stuff. It is always good motivation for guys to tell them they could be a part of history.
Bart in Griffin asked about tackling – we seem to have an instinct to hit high, above the waist. Have tackling fundamentals changes? Plus, when you’re that high you get hands near the face and could have problems. Fundamentals have changed a bit – players are taught to aim for the breast plate – belly button to pads and club up. What we haven’t done well lately is wrap up. We’ve been making hits but not always wrap up. Lots of guys nowadays also try to strip the ball instead of wrapping up.
Les in Macon (from the TD club) – everyone there enjoyed Richt’s address there. How did our OL come out of the Auburn game health-wise? CMR – the OL really played pretty good. This game, we went with Josh Davis most of the game and Kiante Tripp some. As for guys who are injured – Q. Banks could make it back for this game but more likely the bowl, also Justin Anderson could be back for the bowl.
Shaka in Atlanta – approaching the off week and knowing we’re playing Tech and the option, how do you approach it defensively? (The caller played at Air Force and knows the option pretty well.) Also, what bowl scenarios are likely and could we get into a BCS bowl? CMR – you can study film and see what people did that worked and what didn’t work? Defensive coordinators communicate a lot and try to help each other out. We also have to get our scout teamers to simulate that thing. We’re going to take a scout team DB, Bacarri Rambo, and put him at QB to simulate that option. Richt doesn’t know if there is a scenario to get us in the BCS .. maybe if Florida or Alabama loses in the regular season then loses again in the SEC title game. Richt says the scenario he’s hearing is the Capital One.
Jimmy from Tupelo, MS thinks teams with more speed on defense have more success against option teams. Also, he wants to get a football autographed. Richt would rather not have an open date before the last game of the year. He’d rather have them spaced out as a rule. But this year, playing Coach Johnson and that system, it works out well. In addition to speed, playing assignment football is important.
Kerry in Warner Robins .. (disappeared .. couldn’t be heard over the Purdue band…)
Paul in Adel asked what the possibility of playing our CBs up and spying that option. CMR says playing man coverage against the option is asking for trouble. The WR can run a takeoff pattern and the option can be coming right behind it. The first trick is to keep everything in front. And you don’t want to get outflanked. The first thing is to stop the dive and Dwyer has really done a good job this year. Stop the dive, then the QB option, then defeat some blocks.
UGA basketball vs. Loyola, Ill. follows the show.
- 275 reads